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Temple Faces Tough Challenge Against #1 Duke

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – It’s a tall order for the Temple Owls on Wednesday night as they travel down to Durham, North Carolina for a visit with #1 Duke.

The Owls are ranked 24th this week and they bring a 21-5 record into this game, but they may be shorthanded. Junior forward Scootie Randall continues to deal with a right foot injury. Owls Head Coach Fran Dunphy says it would be unlikely that he would be able to play against Duke.

“He’s still real sore,” Dunphy said.

If Randall can’t go, Dunphy says they will follow the blueprint they used in Sunday’s win over St. Joe’s to try and fill in his minutes.

“Aaron Brown will start and yet you know that Khalif Wyatt and T.J. DiLeo are going to come off the bench and give us some significant minutes and time.”

As for the match-up with Blue Devils, Dunphy says they are #1 for a reason:

“Like every other year, the culture that has been built is so extraordinary that their expectations are to win no matter who is on that team. Then you throw out there two senior leaders like Nolan Smith and Kyle Singler, they are just terrific basketball players. And then they have really good depth, they have really good size, they have every ingredient to win the whole thing.”

Duke is 25-2 on the season and this will be their first game since returning to the top of the poll on Monday.

Temple is 21-5 on the season and they have won eight in a row.

Listen to more of what Coach Dunphy had to say about the match-up against Duke …

Coming on board at KYW was a homecoming for Matt Leon. Born and raised in southern New Jersey, Matt is a radio veteran who moved away from the Delaware Valley for several years before returning to join the Newsradio team.
A 1992 graduate of...